"It was well worth it": Manning

The critics have had their say and in the days to come there will be reviews and analyses on what did and did not happen at the Fifth Summit of the Americas in Port of Spain.

But for the man who committed tens of millions and invested years of time and energy planning the event, "It was well worth it." That was how Prime Minister Patrick Manning closed the mega-event.

He held a news conference immediately after the closing ceremony at the Diplomatic Centre in St Ann's and addressed the anticipated criticism about the cost of hosting the summit.

"It is never an inexpensive proposition to host any summit at all. And for a small developing country like Trinidad and Tobago seeking to host a summit like this for the first time, the infrastructural costs would, of necessity, be higher than those costs associated with the conduct of a similar exercise in the more developed countries of the world," Manning explained.

"We understand that. But we also understand that as you host a summit like this, the eyes of the region and the world are indeed on you, and by all that we have said and done here, and what has come into the public domain over the last few days, attention and more attention has been focused on Trinidad and Tobago.

"Remember we had here 33 Heads of State and government and one President came to Trinidad and Tobago with 15 senior businessmen for the first time with a view to looking at investment possibilities."

"And we believe what justifies it is the extent to which we are able to attract investment into the country in the long run. But may I also say that man shall not live by bread alone and that whether we attract investments (or not) ... our contribution to peace and harmony in the Western Hemisphere ... would have had a world effect which would have justified the fact that we have made the commitments of expenditure that we have made. I think it was well worth it,"

Manning was particularly pleased with the way things turned out, calling the summit a "turning point" in hemispheric relations. The summit saw a thaw in relations between Venezuela and the United States and a softening of the American stand against Cuba.

In fact the Venezuelan leader shook hands with his American counterpart and declared, "I want to be your friend".

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper summarized it best when he said, "The most remarkable and incredible thing about the summit was the failure to fulfil the expectations of great confrontation."

Harper added, "We all came here believing that we would have quite a battle among radically different perspectives on certain issue... But confrontation gave way to dialogue... and the chemistry among the principal antagonists was very good."

The American president was also full of praise for Trinidad & Tobago, host Manning and the way the summit progressed. He set the tone at the opening last Friday and concluded on the same note.

And Barack Obama's declaration that all nations in the hemisphere are equal signalled a new dawn for the relations between Washington and the region.

Obama said the United states must recognize that "Our military power is just one arm of our power, and we have to use our diplomatic and development aid in more intelligent ways so people can see more concrete improvements in the lives of their peoples as a consequence of U.S. foreign policy."